El Mundo del Quijote

Madrid: Insula, 1958. First edition. Octavo in off-white wrappers; 169 pages; 21 cm. Some yellowing to front wrapper, else about near fine(-) to vg+. Paperback.

Written in Spanish by an American scholar then teaching at Duke, this compact study argues against the prevailing mid-century view that Cervantes made reality itself unstable. For Predmore, the world of the *Quijote* is solid and the narrator confirms it — *y así era la verdad*. What wavers is human perception, bent by desire, fear, and imagination.

His most enduring contribution is the analysis of enchantment. Counting more than a hundred discussions of *encantadores* in the novel, he shows that Cervantes's enchanters, unlike those of the chivalric romances, are always anonymous and never seen — which is precisely what allows characters to invoke them to defend illusions and evade responsibility.

Predmore revised and translated the book himself as *The World of Don Quixote* (Harvard University Press, 1967).